Men's Soccer Heads to Albany For Pivotal America East Contest

The UMBC men's soccer team (5-3-2, 0-0-2) plays its third
consecutive road game on Wednesday, Oct. 13 when they battle
America East rival Albany (4-7-0, 0-2-0) at Varsity Field in
Albany, N.Y. Both teams are searching for their first
conference win of the young, but rapidly aging league schedule.
Kick-off time is set for 3:00 p.m.

The Retrievers are in the midst of a season-high three-game
unbeaten streak, but UMBC is 0-3-0 in three previous encounters at
Albany.

The Retrievers opened America East Conference play on Saturday,
Oct. 2, drawing 1-1 in double overtime vs. Binghamton.
Freshman Pete Caringi
III scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Retrievers
a 1-0 lead in the 75rh minute, but the Bearcats countered seven
minutes later. Senior midfielder Levi Hoaupeu had the best chance
for either team in overtime, but his drive less than a minute into
the first extra period was saved.

On Oct. 9, UMBC played the role of homecoming guest at New
Hampshire and the two teams battled to a double overtime scoreless
draw. Junior goalkeeper Dan
Louisignau recorded five saves to post his first shutout
in a UMBC uniform. It was UMBC's first scoreless tie
since a 2008 deadlock at Maine.

Between the two America East matches, UMBC posted an impressive
2-1 win at defending Patriot League champion Bucknell on Oct. 5.
Senior Chris
Williams and freshman Pete Caringi III provided
the Retrievers with a 2-0 lead, before the Bison scored on a
penalty kick in the 82nd minute to prevent the home
shutout.

The Retrievers had posted come-from-behind victories in the 2-1
home win over La Salle on Sept. 15 and the 3-2 victory at Mount St.
Mary's on Sept. 18. The Retrievers trailed the Mount, 2-0, at
halftime and rallied to win from a two-goal deficit for the first
time since a 4-3 overtime win (they trailed 3-1) over Coastal
Carolina on Oct. 11, 1997. The last time they won in 90 minutes
after trailing by two goals occurred a year earlier when they
erased a 2-0 deficit at Winthrop and defeated the Eagles, 4-3, on
Oct. 21, 1996.

The offensive heroes for UMBC were senior Houapeu and freshman
reserve forward Pete Caringi III. Houapeu scored the
game-tying goal and Caringi added the game-winner vs. Mount St.
Mary's, after Caringi had the game-tying tally and Houapeu the
winner in the 2-1 overtime victory over La Salle.

A Glance at the Great
Danes:Albany fell to Stony Brook
by a 2-0 decision on Saturday, Oct. 9 in its homecoming match. The
Great Danes have lost five straight matches after winning four of
their first six. The team has been shut out four times during the
losing streak. Goalkeeper Adrian Foncette is leading the
league in saves per game (5.1) for the second straight season. Bo
Jelovac) is leading the team in scoring for the second straight
year. He has three goals and one assist for seven points

The Apple Does Not
Fall Far: Pete Caringi III has won a pair of
America East Conference Men's Soccer Rookie of the Week awards
(9/7, 9/20). He made his first official start at FDU, although he
was in the starting lineup for the cancelled contest at Loyola.
Though his first six games coming off the bench, Caringi had scored
four goals in 207 minutes of action and was a +4 (5 UMBC goals
scored, 1 allowed) when he was on the field in wins over La Salle
and Mount St. Mary's. The Retriever freshman is
25th in the nation and tied for second in America
East in goals per game (0.6). He has scored goals in four of his
last six outings and was credited with his second GWG at
Bucknell.

The Levi is Not
Dry: Houapeu now has seven goals in ten games this
season and became the 11th player in school history to amass 25
career goals. He has 79 career points (26-18-70) and has moved into
a tie for eighth place on UMBC's all-time scoring
list. The nation's leading scorer in 2009 was ranked in
several NCAA statistical categories entering play this week.

Points Per
Game 13th (1.7)

Goals Per
game 14th
(0.7)

The last player to hit the 25-goal plateau was Derek
McElligott, who did so in the 2003 season and finished his career
with 47 tallies.

Bullish on
Bulls:, Junior forward/midfielder Andrew
Bulls has posted two assists in a game on two
occasions this season. He helped out on UMBC's first two goals vs.
the Mount and also had two assists in the opener vs. VMI. He has
eight assists on the campaign (0.80 per game), which was the
fifith-best figure in the nation entering play this week. The
preseason Hermann Award candidate now has 21 career assists, moving
into a tie for fourth place on the school's all-time list. His 69
career point total (24-21-69) moves him into tenth place on UMBC's
all-time scoring list.

Player
Notes: Junior midfielder Nirav
Kadam is 14th the nation in assists per game (0.56). He
posted his first point since the La Salle game on Sept. 15 with the
primary assist on Caringi's GWG at Bucknell.

Senior Chris Williams got the UMBC rally started with
his first goal of the season in the 53rd minute vs. the Mount.
Williams played exclusively in the backfield for his first 59
career games, but has played in the midfield in UMBC's last three
outings. He responded with UMBC's first goal of the contest at
Bucknell and his five points this season (2-1-5) is a new personal
best.

Junior goalkeeper Dan Louisignau recorded five saves
at UNH on Oct. 9 to post his first shutout in a UMBC uniform as the
Retrievers and Wildcats battled to a scoreless tie. Louisignau is
2-0-2 with a 1.12 goals against average, but has allowed only two
goals in his last 355 minutes of action (0.51 gaa) since taking
over the starting goalkeeping position. He made his
first official career start on Oct. 2 vs. Binghamton and posted a
team season-best nine saves. The nine saves was the most for a
Retriever goalkeeper since Steve Kingposted 12 at Virginia
Tech on Oct. 14, 2008.

Team
Notes: UMBC is 31st in the nation in scoring, averaging
1.9 goals per game. The Retrievers were sixth in the
nation in scoring in 2009, averaging 2.15 goals per
contest. UMBC's 110-minute shutout of UNH was the squad's
first clean slate since blanking Wofford, 2-0, on Sept. 4.

The Retrievers are 3-0-1 at home this season and have won 13
consecutive September home games dating back to 2007. They have a
current five-game home unbeaten streak and are 11-2-1 in their last
14 home matches.

With the back-to-back wins over La Salle and Mount St. Mary's,
UMBC recorded back-to-back come-from-behind wins for the first time
since early in the 2000 season, when they rallied to defeat Holy
Cross (4-3, 2ot) and Delaware (2-1, 2ot) on Sept. 3 and Sept.
6.

Caringi's goal vs. Binghamton broke a streak of five straight
contests in which UMBC has allowed the game's first goal.

The
Series: The series is squared at 3-3-1 and
neither squad has posted back-to-back wins. Last season, Last
season, Hoaupeu had a hat trick and senior midfielder Dustin
Dzwonkowski added two in UMBC's 5-1 rout of Albany at UMBC
Soccer Stadium. UMBC has scored nine goals in the past two meetings
with Albany, but dropped a 5-4 decision at Varsity Field in
2008.

Next
Up: UMBC returns to America East action just 53 hours
after the Albany contest return home to entertain torrid Boston U.
(7-3-0, 2-0-0) on Friday, Oct. 15 at 8:00 p.m. The game
is part of UMBC's Homecoming Festivities and will be televised
nationally by Fox Soccer Channel.